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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes
They are all around us, in the ground, in our bodies and in the air, but are often too small to be seen at the naked eye.
They provide medicine and food, but also cause havoc by causing plant and animal diseases.
According to the first major assessment of the state of the world's mushrooms, the mushroom kingdom is vital for life on Earth.
Yet, over 90% of the estimated 3.8 million mushrooms in the world are currently unknown to science.
"It's such an interesting set of organizations and we know very little about them," says Professor Kathy Willis, director of science at Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, who led the report.
"These are really weird organisms with the strangest life cycle, and yet, when you understand their role in the Earth's ecosystem, you realize that they support life on Earth."
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
China is rich in fungal resources
Many people know about edible fungi or mold behind penicillin. However, fungi play an important role in helping plants to draw water and soil nutrients into drugs that can lower blood cholesterol or allow organ transplantation.
Mushrooms are also promising for the degradation of plastics and the production of new types of biofuels. But they have a darker side; devastating trees, crops and other plants around the world, and annihilating animals such as amphibians.
Jekyll and Hyde
Dr. Ester Gaya, who runs a research project at Kew on the diversity and evolution of the world's mushrooms, says that mushrooms are a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
"They can be good and bad at the same time," she says. "The same mushroom can be considered a bad thing – it can be bad – but it can also have a lot of potential and a lot of solutions."
The report highlights a number of gaps in our knowledge of a group of organizations that can provide answers to food security. The fungal kingdom contains some of the most harmful crop pathogens. But mushrooms also recycle nutrients and play a role in regulating carbon dioxide levels.
"We do not know mushrooms at our peril," explains Professor Willis. "It's a kingdom we need to start taking seriously, especially with climate change and all the other challenges we face."
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
There are hundreds of types of edible mushrooms
Fascinating facts about mushrooms
- Mushrooms are in a kingdom apart, but are closer to animals than plants
- They have chemicals in their cell walls shared with lobsters and crabs
- A mushroom has been discovered capable of degrading plastics in a few weeks rather than years
- There is evidence to suggest that yeasts – a type of mushroom – were used to produce beverage mead 9,000 years ago.
- At least 350 species are consumed as food, including truffles, which can sell for thousands of dollars, quorn, and those of the pot and cheese
- The plastic car parts, synthetic rubber and lego are made using itaconic acid derived from a mushroom
- 216 species of mushrooms are thought to be hallucinogenic
- Mushrooms are used to turn crop waste into bioethanol
- Mushroom products can be used to replace polystyrene foam, leather and building materials
- DNA studies show that there are thousands of different fungi in a single soil sample, many of which are unknown and hidden – what are known as "dark taxa".
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Penicillin alone has multiple uses – in antibiotics, birth control pills, and cheese production
The report on the state of the world's mushrooms has involved more than 100 scientists from 18 countries. He found:
- More than 2,000 new fungi are discovered each year from a variety of sources, including a human fingernail.
- Hundreds of species are collected and consumed as food, with the world market of edible mushrooms accounting for 32.5 billion pounds a year.
- Only 56 types of fungi were evaluated for the IUCN Red List, compared with more than 25,000 plants and 68,000 animals.
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Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Fungi, such as this pest, can cause widespread damage
At last count, there were at least 15,000 types of mushrooms in the UK, some of which may be on the way out.
Citizen scientists help identify mushrooms across the country, adding to a database of more than 1,000 new records.
Dr. Brian Douglas of The Lost and Found Fungi Project says that mushrooms are as beautiful as orchids and just as important to protect. "I think we have to teach people, invite people to admire mushrooms."
Colleague Dr. Oliver Ellingham adds. "Mushrooms are a whole other realm equal to or better than the diversity of plants and animals."
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